It's No Spoonful of Sugar

Perhaps you've heard of tractor pulling, taffy pulling, pulling your weight, and pulling over for emergency vehicles, but how about oil pulling? Though it sounds like something from the petroleum industry, it is actually a very old technique to improve dental health by reducing the number of harmful bacteria in the mouth. It might seem like a bizarre thing to do, but the benefits may be more than just anecdotal. One study, for example, showed a significant reduction in Streptococcus mutans, which contributes to plaque buildup and tooth decay.

The process is simple: swish some oil around in your mouth for a while and spit it out. The type of oil can vary. Sesame is a traditional choice, but coconut is also popular due to its natural antimicrobial properties. As for the amount and duration, it appears that anything between a teaspoon and a tablespoon swished for 5 to 20 minutes is acceptable. Some proponents recommend brushing before, and some after. 

Open wide!

Easy enough, right? Except that the first time I put a heaping teaspoon of coconut oil in my mouth, I nearly gagged. I thought there was no way I could swish it for my starting goal of 5 minutes. But I distracted myself with a little Saturday Night Live, and before I knew it, the time was up. I spit out the oil in the trash (to avoid clogging the drain), rinsed my mouth, and was pleasantly surprised to find that my teeth felt pretty darn good.

Over the course of the week, I extended my swishing time by a minute each day until I made it to ten. It did get easier, but, honestly, this whole deal really is kind of gross. What starts out as a mouthful of oil (bad) becomes a mouthful of oil mixed with saliva (worse). My sister suggested adding a drop of tea tree essential oil, and that helped. A little. With practice, I got better at oil pulling, but I never looked forward to it.

I'm really tempted to call this one a Leave It. And I probably would, except for growing research that potentially links oral hygiene with a list of health problems, including heart and respiratory diseases, pancreatic cancer, and Alzheimer's. Apparently, when bad mouth bacteria migrate to the bloodstream, they can wreak all kinds of havoc. So, I think I'll keep up with the oil pulling a while longer and see if my dentist notices a difference.

This week: a reluctant Take It.

Mmmmm...oily

Kon-do or Kon-don't?

Japanese organizing consultant and author Marie Kondo is all the rage right now. Her 2011 book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up is an international bestseller, and she has a new show on Netflix. Her method, called KonMari, involves these six initial steps:

.

• Commit yourself to tidying up.
• Imagine your ideal lifestyle.
• Finish discarding first. Before getting rid of items, sincerely thank each item for serving its purpose.
• Tidy by category, not location.
• Follow the right order. (I don't know what that is, because I haven't read the book.)
• Ask yourself if it sparks joy.

The crux of the process is getting rid of items that lack value, and (in the case of clothes) goes like this: 

• Take everything out of closets and drawers.
• Make a big pile.
• Consider each item individually to determine whether it sparks joy.

I am intrigued by the sparking joy part, but I also know that I don't have the stamina right now to KonMari my life. If I were to make a pile of all my clothes, in a few days, I would have...the same pile of clothes, but with a couple of helpings of guilt and irritation on the side.

But that doesn't mean I can't take small steps toward "life changing magic," so my Take It or Leave It for last week was to clean one shelf or drawer every day. This was in addition to the routine household tasks that somehow need to be done approximately every six minutes. 

Although I didn't go full Kondo, I actually made demonstrable progress. Most of my projects took less than ten minutes, and it was pretty satisfying to throw stuff away. (BTW, I didn't ask if the old underwear sparked joy; I just pitched them.) 

I look at this week as practice for a time in the future when I'm willing to commit to a big KonMari purge. But maybe if I wait long enough--decades, hopefully--I can jump right into Margareta Magnusson's book The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, which, in a nutshell, involves getting rid of all my crap before my boys have to deal with it.

This mini-KonMari Take It or Leave It is a Take It, but probably only two or three times a week instead of daily.  

I'll leave you with this quote from Beauty and the Beast Marie Kondo: 

It is only when you put your house in order that your furniture and decorations come to life.

Pull Up a Chair

Ayurveda has a saying: "When you eat standing up, death looks over your shoulder." That strikes me as especially dire because it's a bad habit of mine. I'll eat half my lunch while I'm standing at the counter making it and half my dinner while I'm cleaning up the kitchen. I'll grab a few nuts and eat them on the way to the laundry room or a few crackers as I head out the door. I'm a roving nibbler of the worst order. In a traditional hunter/gatherer society, I'd be the one who returned home with an empty basket every time because I ate all the berries as I was walking along.

Last week, I tried to break the habit...or at least put a dent in it. My rule was that I could only eat while I was sitting at my dining table. Frankly, this was not my most successful endeavor--partly because of a family circumstance that threw me off my schedule and stressed me out, and partly because this eating-on-the-go habit is more deeply ingrained in me than I imagined.

I'm not a drive-through person, so eating in the car isn't an issue, but apparently anywhere in my house is fair game. (Except the bathroom, because ewww.) The ridiculous thing is that it somehow feels more efficient to eat when I'm doing other things. Multitasking, you know. So, even with a concerted effort to pull up a chair every time I put food in my mouth, I probably only remembered to do it about 60 percent of the time.

When I did remember, I usually felt pretty good about it. Sitting down allowed me to be much more mindful, and I'm sure I consumed fewer unnecessary calories, too. But it was occasionally a little irritating, as if I had not death looking over my shoulder but a nosy little hall monitor telling me to slow down, there's no fire.

I would love to say that this is a slam-dunk Take It, that I saw the error of my ways and will now sit, relax, and enjoy each morsel of food, but this one is going to take some time. At least now, though, I'm more aware of it, and sometimes that's half the battle.

Bon appetit!

When TED Talks, People Listen

   

This TED...

Hello and happy Wednesday! Considering the adversarial, and often downright ugly, tone of the news these days, it's easy to forget that the world is full of people who know and do interesting things and are willing to share them with the rest of us. I reminded myself of this last week when I decided to watch a daily TED talk.

Not this Ted.

If you are unfamiliar with TED, here's what the website says about their organization:

TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages. Meanwhile, independently run TEDx events help share ideas in communities around the world.

TED has also expanded to include the TED Radio Hour, TED Masterclasses, the TED mobile app, and TED-ED animations, which are short, fun videos that use fun graphics and music to explain a variety of science and lifestyle topics.

Other than catching snippets of the TED Radio Hour in my car, I've been in a TED-free zone for quite some time. It's one of those things I tell myself I should do more of--"Hey, self, you should watch more TED talks!"--but then I never actually do it. So I was grateful for my Take It or Leave It kick in the pants, because I really enjoyed my daily dose of TED.

I learned, among other things, about the physics of bubbles, the science behind human organ regeneration, and how dog noses work. I was inspired to re-think my personal narrative and persevere in the face of failure. I got some tips on how to get better at the things that really matter to me. I listened to a guy talk about how he tried something new every 30 days, which confirmed to me that small changes in our lives are much more sustainable. Last but not least, I watched a semi-compelling animation about why humans should eat more insects. (Bugs look much more appetizing in cartoon form, I must say.)

Many of the TED talks are quite short, and there was no need to devote hours and hours to broadening my world view. But once I got started, it was easy to just keep watching. All in all, this week of TED has been one of my favorite new activities, which makes this Take It or Leave It a definite Take It.

5-Letter Word for a Rectangular Board

Unless you've been living in a fitness blackout zone (I honestly don't blame you if you are; no judgment here), you've heard how important strong core muscles are. Because I often feel like I have the core fitness of a mushy apple, I decided to try a week of planking. Note that I'm referring to the exercise, not the weird fad of lying face-down in unusual places. (Apparently, that is also called the Lying Down Game, which sounds like something invented by the desperate parent of a toddler who will...not...nap.)

Planking: the fad 

The internet is full of planking challenges, but mine was short and simple: three planks a day. I started with thirty seconds per plank on the first day, which didn't seem quite painful enough, and finally settled on a minute. Other than the occasional forearm plank, I didn't change up my form. No side plank, stability ball plank, reverse plank, or walking the plank. (A little pirate humor for you, arrr.)

In general, I am not averse to strength training exercises, but I discovered over the course of the week that I don't really enjoy planking. Sometimes my wrists hurt. Sometimes my back complained. Sometimes my dog came to see what I was doing and licked my face. Every single time I planked, I was glad when the minute was over. I could, however, feel all the muscles engaging as they are supposed to, so I'm sure planking is good for me even though I kind of hate it.

Planking: the cat

Now I must decide: take it or leave it? According to the internet, the benefits of daily planking include increased strength and flexibility, improved posture, decreased risk of spinal injury, better balance, and a boost in metabolism. I could use all those things. So I guess this week's Take It or Leave It is a grudging Take It.

Once Upon a Time...

...there was a little girl who loved reading fairy tales. She had a two-volume set of Grimm's, one book blue and one red. As time went by, she lost track of those books. Fast-forward a few (okay, many) years, and that grown-up girl happened to come across one of the same books in a second-hand store. She bought it, because eight bucks is not bad for a big dose of nostalgia. In reading through it, she remembered a) how much she loved fairy tales, and b) she had bought a complete Grimm's Fairy Tales from Barnes and Noble a while back for next to nothing, and that big book was just hanging out in her stack, waiting to be rediscovered. So the next week's Take It or Leave It was born...

I read (at least) one fairy tale every day for a week, and I think I've identified what it is about them that captivates me: the stories collected by the Brothers Grimm are flippin' nuts. I mean, just absolutely wacko. Yes, they are full of deep symbolism and archetypes--witches, roses, mirrors, tricksters, and so on--but they're also like the craziest fever dreams a person could have. Talking animals? Of course--and also trees, streams, rocks, and bones. Glass mountains that open up and swallow whoever or whatever happens to be near? Yes, sir. A guy the size of a thumb? Sure, why not. Children made entirely out of gold? Got 'em. Well, how about a child who is a hedgehog on top and a human boy on the bottom? Him, too.

And don't forget all the scheming, double-crossing, lying, homicide, wisdom and stupidity, patience and haste, laziness and industriousness, dying and resurrection, sinning and redemption. So many themes. So many lessons and cautionary tales. So much potential for creative inspiration.

I'm glad I spent the week getting reacquainted with Grimm's tales and will continue to read through them, including the great Philip Pullman's Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm. For now, I'll leave you with the first two lines from a story called Fitcher's Bird, which stopped me short:

There was once a wizard who used to take the form of a poor man, and went to houses and begged, and caught pretty girls. No one knew whither he carried them, for they were never seen more.

Sweet dreams!

My Siesta Fiesta

In many countries--Spain, Mexico, the Philippines, Italy, Nigeria, and more--the afternoon nap is an integral part of the day...and an opportunity to get out of the heat. In America, we've come a ways since the Seinfeld episode when George Costanza had to curl up under his desk to get some shuteye. But we still haven't gone all in on this napping thing. Kids, sure. Adults, though? It seems lazy and unproductive, two things we Americans like to pretend we hate (when in actuality, we enjoy lying down and putting up our feet as much as the rest of the world does, gosh darn it). Plus, we're absolute lunatics about air conditioning, so escaping the heat isn't a problem.


The science suggests America would be well-suited to adopt the siesta culture. A power nap (around 20 minutes) can boost creativity, productivity, problem-solving, reasoning, and learning. Napping three times a week has been shown to lower the risk of heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. Plus, the general reduction in stress can make us happier and, one would imagine, more pleasant to be around.

I am always tired when mid-afternoon rolls around, so for my Take It or Leave It this week, I decided to try a daily nap. In the interest of being consistent, I set a couple of ground rules: I would lie down at the same time every day, and I wasn't allowed to read or look at my phone. Just set a timer, close my eyes, and hopefully catch some winks.

Honestly, I thought I was going to crush this napping thing. After all, I've been known to fall asleep in class, in cars, in movies, in airplanes... But I struggled with the planned nap. On Saturday, I forgot about it altogether. Out of the other six days, I had only two where I felt like the nap did all those magical things for me that naps are supposed to do. On the other four days, I woke up feeling just as tired as I was before, but with the added bonus of also being grouchy.

Even though this week wasn't terribly successful, I'm not quite ready to throw in the nap towel. In fact, I feel challenged now to figure out what constitutes a perfect nap for me. To start, I think I'll shoot for the thrice-weekly siesta and maybe even check into one of the "power nap" apps that I only now discovered exist.

I guess that means this week's Take It or Leave It is a little bit of both.

Happy napping!